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ABS Actuator questions...

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by green_genes, Feb 9, 2014.

  1. green_genes

    green_genes New Member

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    I am test-driving a 2004 with 172,000 miles for the weekend. I love the car and was planning on buying it tomorrow morning when I return to the dealership. In researching the service records for the car on the Toyota website, I found that the car was brought to the Toyota dealership in September for a brake problem. The brakes were bled and the fault codes apparently cleared. In October, the car was brought back in and the owner was told that it needed an ABS Actuator. The quote was for $2500 and a notation was made that the part needed to be ordered. Mileage at this time was 170,000.

    There are no further records indicating that the work was actually performed. The car was driven another 2,000 miles and traded in at a Ford dealership in December. It apparently sat on their lot with little interest until I looked at it on Saturday. I have put about 100 miles on it over the weekend. The ABS appears to work fine. I have stopped on wet pavement, and in snow, and not had a problem. The indicator light for the ABS flashes when I stand on the brakes.

    Would the Toyota dealer tell me if the work had actually been performed if I call them with the VIN Number?

    Is it possible to clear the error code, or at least get the light to turn off long enough to get rid of the car, by disconnecting the battery cable?

    I love the car, but obviously don't want to dump $3000 into it a week after I buy it.
     
    #1 green_genes, Feb 9, 2014
  2. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    DTC logged by the skid control ECU can be cleared by putting a jumper on pins 4 and 13 of the OBD-II connector (do a search for the exact procedure.)

    The ABS light should not appear unless there is a problem. Under low traction conditions where a tire is slipping or locking up, the light showing a car with a wavy track below it will turn on momentarily.

    Since you were able to research the car's VIN on the Toyota website, I doubt the Toyota dealer would have any more information to share with you about the brake actuator being replaced. It would be wise to assume that repair was not funded by the prior owner.
     
    #2 Patrick Wong, Feb 9, 2014
  3. green_genes

    green_genes New Member

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    Thank you, Patrick.

    The "wavy track" light that you describe is the one that appears. The ABS lights up when the car is started, and then shuts off. If the actuator is bad, would it continually send an error code, or if the code was cleared would it take multiple uses of the ABS system before the code might show up again? Is it possible that the code was "bad" - triggered by some other issue with the braking system that was corrected?

    I will call the service department at the dealership, of course, and assume that the repair was not done unless they tell me otherwise. I also realize that there is inherent risk in buying any car that's 10 years old, let alone one with 176,000 miles. I'm just trying to get a handle on how likely this is to be a real problem.
     
    #3 green_genes, Feb 9, 2014
  4. dorunron

    dorunron Senior Member

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    Not Patrick, but I will say this. If Toyota repaired the car, it will be on the website where you registered the VIN. Like Patrick said, IMO the repair that was suggested by Toyota was NOT completed.

    Does that mean the work needs to be done? Very possible, but you won't know until it codes again. Buyer beware!

    Best of luck to you and "Welcome to Prius Chat".
     
    #4 dorunron, Feb 9, 2014
  5. green_genes

    green_genes New Member

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    Thanks for the replies. I suppose my best course of action at this point is to see if the selling dealer is willing to contact the previous owner on my behalf. They took the car on trade, so perhaps they could ask if the work might have been done at an independent shop with a used/salvaged part. I suspect it's more likely that the prospect of a $2500 repair bill was the impetus to get rid of the car before the part failed completely.
     
    #5 green_genes, Feb 9, 2014
  6. dorunron

    dorunron Senior Member

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    If you are seriously interested in that particular Prius, I would suggest you have it checked out by a Toyota dealer. I don't know if I would be willing to trust the selling dealer (Ford) or not. Again, it is buyer beware.

    It is very possible that the repair was made with a used part by an independent but it also seems very logical that the car was traded in to a competitor to avoid having to make the expensive repair.

    A lot of times codes can be cleared and the car can be driven for quite a few cycles and or miles before the malfunction occurs again. With used cars most buyers only have a three day grace period before the car cannot be returned and you are then stuck with a broken down car.

    If it were me, with the scenario you described I would pass on that Prius and look elsewhere. Try to find one with lower mileage and a little newer year model. Your best bet imo would be a "CPO" certified pre owned from Toyota.

    FWIW, the "lifetime" for a Prius according to Toyota is 180,000 miles. That does mean it is done then, as there are quite a few Pri on the road with 200,000 to 300,000 on the odometer. Some of those vehicles will have a rather long list of maintenance and possible part replacement/repairs while some of the others will have very few problems.

    Again, best of luck to you.
     
    #6 dorunron, Feb 9, 2014
  7. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    If the brake actuator motor is marginal, then the problem of low hydraulic pressure may come and go. It would not surprise me that the issue may go away temporarily depending on, for example, ambient air temperature.

    It is certainly possible that some other fault may have triggered the specific code, but you would think that whatever was done to remedy the fault would be logged into the Toyota service database by the servicing dealership.

    Also, consider how likely is it that the prior owner would pay $2,500 for this repair, then trade the car in 2,000 miles later, while the car probably yielded $3K trade-in value if the owner was lucky. That would be an example of really poor timing and planning.

    If you really want to buy this car, and if it turns out the fault still exists, one possibility would be for you to buy a used actuator assembly from a salvage yard, install it, and then tow the car to your local Toyota dealership so that the tech can bleed the brake hydraulic system (the Toyota diagnostic laptop is required for this procedure.) If you can DIY the installation, the used part might cost a few hundred dollars and I would expect the dealer to charge less than $200 for the brake bleed procedure.

    Or you could invest in mini VCI which runs on a Windows XP laptop and enjoy similar diagnostic functionality yourself.
     
    #7 Patrick Wong, Feb 10, 2014
  8. NI488

    NI488 New Member

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    OBD-II jumper procedure, can someone send me this procedure.
     
    #8 NI488, Sep 18, 2015
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